


Ghost bride

by Rogercat



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: All Shall Fade, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Atonement - Freeform, Beleriand, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Elf/Human Relationship(s), F/M, Gen, Ghosts, Grief/Mourning, Journey, Middle Earth, Old Age, Past Relationship(s), Siblings, Suicide, Terrifying Tolkien Week, Wedding Dress, battle of sudden flame, lake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-07 01:12:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16398554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogercat/pseuds/Rogercat
Summary: Andreth can not bear to live when Aegnor is no longer alive, and Finrod realize what a unforgiveable action he have done in the past





	Ghost bride

She feels it, all of her ancient body suddenly full of pain and grief. No longer the young maiden he once loved, but she knows that her lover stayed true to her since she never heard of him wedding another.

 

Her legs struggling to keep her up as the empty void in her chest seems to widen itself for every passing moment, she opened the door to her little hut and rushed outside as quickly as she could.   

 

“Oh, Creator of this world, of our races! Are this the price for us loving each other, the mortal outliving her immortal lover?!” she cried to the sky, where dark clouds of smoke was spreading from the north. Even with her old eyes, she could imagine a massive fire spreading in that area.

 

Then, a pair of ghostly hands covered in blood was laid over her eyes, and she saw no more.  

 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

 

As much as he grieved over the loss of his brothers Angrod and Aegnor when the news of their deaths by the flames from Thangorodrim came to him, something drove Finrod to ride as quickly he could to Ladros. He could not really explain it, but knew that he had to get there.

 

“My King, please wait!” called one of his bodyguards behind him, for Finrod had almost ridden away from them in his hurry. But the King of Nargothrond could not stop. The instinct to arrive in time, or something even worse may happen.  

  


There it was, at the bottom of her clothes chest, below all the other clothing. The wedding dress she never had gotten to use, the fabric chosen by her lover to bring out her darker skin colour and the dark brown hair of her now long-gone youth well over seventy years ago. Its colour was now a shaded yellow from where it once had been dyed with weld, as if woven from spider webs instead of rare Elvish silk, the once pure white flower embroideries now faint and wane.

 

Sixty to seventy years, wasted on mourning what should have been. Why had they not defied everyone back then when they had understood their feelings for each other, and eloped together so to later return as a wedded husband and wife by the Laws of the Eldar? Even with the very little possibility that they could have had children together,

 

_Come to me, beloved,_ he called in a echoing voice, as if from a distance, encouraged her to keep doing what her hands had started when a moment's hesitation appeared in her heart.  

 

Dressing herself without help is hard, but somehow, she manages to get the dress on her body. The green eyeshadow made by malachite powder, worn only by a bride on her wedding day as a sign of her leaving her life as a unwed maiden behind and entering into the role as a married wife. Some red colour on the lips, made from henna and water into a paint.   

 

Then, a small bag with all the jewelry she had inherited from her mother and been given as gifts. The heavy gold necklace with rubies and emeralds, the earrings, the bracelets with the same gemstones. Then finally, the headpiece she fasted around her head before a thin white veil was set over her white hair which hung freely over the shoulders.  

 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

 

When the Elven King finally arrived in the small village that had been his goal all the time, many people hurried to him.  

 

“It is lord Finrod!”   

 

“My lord, Andreth have vanished! We have tried to find her, but she is nowhere she uses to be!”

 

**_No._ ** Finrod felt as if he was back on the Grinding Ice for a moment, only that this cold was the emotional kind.

 

Was he already too late?

 

“Resume the search, I'll help you!”

 

Borrowing a new horse since he had ridden his own Elven horse hard already on his way here, he had a worrying feeling where to go.

 

Desperately pleading to both the Valar and the All-Father in his heart, Finrod turned southwest of Ladros.   

 

Andreth was well over her 90s in age, surely she would not have the remaining strength needed to walk all the way back to that lake, where she and his brother had first met?

 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

 

Aeluin, the clear blue mountain lake in the eastern highlands of Dorthonion, southwest of Ladros. Situated among wild heather hills, themselves surrounded by trackless and uninhabited forests and highland plains of heather.

 

To his horror, Finrod did see something out of place between the trees. Some faint yellow, which should have been a much brighter colour once. He could recall that fabric so well, from a time when Aegnor had brought it but not used it for himself. No, only later had he understood that his brother had intended the fabric to be to his chosen bride, even if she was mortal.   

 

“ ** _ANDRETH!! ANDRETH, NO!!!_ ** ” Finrod screamed dismounted his borrowed horse and rushed forwards on his own feet, trying to reach her mind to stop her from what he feared she planned to do. He could see a very faint apparition around her old body, it was the youthful Andreth from the time when she first had met Aegnor, and even from the distance he could feel the despair over her immortal lover's death. That she held no wish to live if he was no alive either.

 

“ **AEGNOR WOULD NOT WANT YOU TO KILL YOURSELF!!** ”  

 

But it was too late. He saw the yellow shape let go of a white veil which flew away in the wind, and then jump freely from the highest chiff around the lake.

 

His eyes unable to look away from the yellow-dressed old woman as she fell down to her death. Finrod felt as if it was his own body hitting the surface of the cold water, he lost control over himself, collapsed down on the ground in despair as he cried out to the two people who no longer was alive:  

 

“ _I never meant this to happen for you both…! I only wanted to spare you both the suffering of a marriage when one life-partner is immortal and the other one are not!_ ”

 

He knew that Aegnor would never forgive himself for being the trigger of Andreth killing herself, a such cruel irony in remaining a unwed maid because of him and in death wearing the wedding dress she had been given by Aegnor so long ago.

 

And Finrod would have to live with the guilt of knowing that it had been his action of reminding Aegnor of that the Eldar did not wed in wartimes, pleading his younger brother to remember Andreth as a young maiden rather than the old woman she would end up becoming, that had caused it all.

 

“ ** _Andreth! Aegnor! I promise, that if there is another mortal and immortal falling in love the you two did while I still draw breath in this body, they shall not have to suffer the fate I ended up dooming you to!!_ ** ” Finrod whispered between his tears as he walked out into the lake to swim further out in the deep water and get back Andreth's now dead body for a burial in the village where she had lived her whole life.

 

It was not a oath, but a promise the King of Nargothrond intended to keep as atonement for how he had dealt with his brother and this mortal woman Aegnor had loved until the very end.      

**Author's Note:**

> Andreth's jewelry are meant to be inspired by what Indian brides wear at their weddings


End file.
